It was a powerful punch, reinforced with mana. It might not be enough to tear Iridessa’s head off, but it should at least keep him from falling from his platform. Apart from moving his robe with the air his punch generated, he did no more harm than using a pillow to punch him.

Malak landed back in a crouch; he was frowning when Lykon joined him. "Baldy, how strong is that...Iridessa."

As they watched, even though he still wasn’t moving, they saw scales made of mana cover his head and rapidly expand to the rest of his body.

Malak was still looking at the Iridessa, holding him from moving with his eyes but he might as well have been holding a fly. Normally, when Malak holds people still with his power, they would struggle against him in a mental battle.

But the Iridessa put up no fight. That worried him more than anything else.

"Hey! Lykon! We have to get His Highness to a healer! The Iridessa did something to him, and he’s bleeding heavily from his wounded shoulder." Kage stood over Thaedric, warping the wound with part of his torn clothes.

Thaedric shrugged his hand away, he looked up at Kage with a tired smile. "Go. Far away from this place." Thaedric could feel something coming.

He shuddered and looked at the guardian statues, the essence of one with the sword. "You have to leave this...."

"Shut up!"

Thaedric looked up at that; he looked. Past the smile and joke that Kage has been acting. He saw fear there so deeply he gasped. And he saw determination. Thaedric understood then. Kagerou who just got his friend back, won’t ever let go again.

"You think you get to push me away again? That’s what you did for all those years you rot away! And I was foolish to let you push me that far and now that you are back, you think you get to push me away again? Think again Thaedric!"

Thaedric’s eyes widen. It ached, bittersweet that all this was meant for the real Thaedric. But he smiled either way. "That’s not how to talk to your Scion."

"Are you two done? Well if you are, you should both get out of here as fast as your legs could carry you."

Malak shouldn’t have bothered with the warning. They felt it like needles against the flesh. Above them, the unmoving Iridessa was covered in some kind of scale orange armor.

But that wasn’t what made Thaedric gasp; it was the aura that covered him; it was stifling as if they were breathing through thick liquid.

Malak grunted as he flexed his aura, too, clashing with the Iridessa’s own, but it was only half of it. "You two should get out here so we tier four can fight!"

Thaedric understood. Their auras also could kill them. "Let’s get the fuck out of here Kage."

"What’s that word..."

Thaedric stumbled to his feet, helped by Kage. They began to shuffle out of the area. But they hadn’t gone more than a few feet when Thaedric felt the surrounding mana surge around him, then crashed on him.

He went down under the weight, he gritted his teeth even as he coughed blood. The back of his head was screaming in pain, itching badly and the pain only got worse when mana started to enter into the symbol on his neck.

The symbols shimmered wetly as they drank the mana.

"Thaedric! Thaedric!"

Thaedric felt his friend shaking him as if from a great distance. He opened his mouth. "He comes..." he whispered.

"You bastard! What did you do to him!" Malak demanded.

The Iridessa’s eyes flickered to Thaedric and then he shrugged. Just like that, Malak’s technique was broken as if it was nothing but a minor disturbance.

"Shit." Malak unfortunately then realized that the man before him has been playing with them since. "We have to get out of here, fast!"

"What are you talking about baldy...."

The air was suddenly filled with arrowheads. Conjured by the Iridessa who was still hovering. Each arrowhead was covered in destructive mana. "My work here is done but have a little something to keep you company before he gets here."

The air twisted around the Iridessa, and he was gone. From above, the arrowheads fell like rain.

Malak used his ancient technique. He didn’t want to but he remembered he gave his words to that boy. And maybe it was more than that.

A black aura exploded around him, unfolding from his back like wings, but it was wings with teeth; snouts came out of the wings, teeth made of gleaming red. A manifestation of the technique itself.

He used it to shield Thaedric and Kage. And he ate the attack that fell on them. That was the only way to describe it. They fell but the snouts ate them up.

Just as quickly as it was done he withdrew the technique.

Everything else around them was destroyed, except for the statues; everything was a pile of smoke craters.

Lykon escaped by running away but he saw the before the impact, where Malak was protecting the others. He was still shocked as he returned. "What type of technique is that? A technique that can eat mana?" He frowned; that technique looked suspiciously high-tier.

Malak didn’t answer, he was tilting his head upward as if he was hearing something far away. "Can you hear that?" 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Kagerou was trying to make Thaedric stand, but the latter was just staring into space, even as the back of his head bubbled with mana, rising into the air in purple and white smoke.

"Help pick him up!" He shouted at Malak.

Malak looked at Thaedric with a frown. "It’s coming from him. It sounds...like a heartbeat of a beast the size of a mountain." He frowned.

The others paused and listened. They heard it, an offbeat sound that grinds against the senses. And it wasn’t coming only from Thaedric. It was also coming from one of the statues.

"He’s here," Thaedric said, fear and finality mixed.